Overview
The Guardian, one of the main British daily newspapers, quoted Simon Tilling in a September 22 article titled "Eco beauty company 'appoints nature' to its board of directors." The article discusses the decision by beauty company Faith in Nature to appoint a director to represent nature on its board.
Tilling explained "The purpose here – to have a positive impact on nature, and to minimise harmful impacts of business operations on nature – has many parallels with wording proposed by other initiatives, such as the Better Business Act campaign." He went on to highlight that under the Companies Act 2006 the director would have the same legal responsibilities as any other director including the duty to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole.
"Although there has been a trend in recent years to move away from a rigid interpretation that this means an absolute primacy of shareholder returns to include more discretion for directors, there is still much debate in the legal profession over how much freedom directors have."
The full article can be read at The Guardian.